Such evaluations are often used for diagnostic determinations, qualifications for services, exceptional student education and for accommodations in school and on tests. We also conduct evaluations for IQ assessment of evaluation of gifted students.

We have more than 25 years of experience in assessing learning disabilities in children, adolescents, college students and adults.

Does you child have dyslexia, dyscalculia or an often-missed nonverbal learning disorder? See our updated ABC's of Learning Disability Page for DSM-5 Criteria.

SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE FOR ACCESSING ARTICLES ABOUT LEARNING DISABILITY

FEDERAL DEFINITIONS CONCERNING LEARNING DISABILITIES ARE PRESENTED ON THIS PAGE

For A primer on Florida Educational Terms and Definitions See this article:

Assessing Children for the Presence of a DisabilityBetsy B. Waterman, Ph.D.NICHCY News Digest Volume 4, Number 1, 1994

The
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Public Law 101-476,
lists 13 separate categories of disabilities under which children may
be eligible for special education and related services.

To
determine if a child is eligible for classification under one of these
areas of exceptionality, an evaluation, or assessment, of the child must
be conducted.

The
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Public Law 101-476,
lists 13 separate categories of disabilities under which children may
be eligible for special education and related services. These are:

AUTISM:
a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal
communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3;

DEAFNESS:
a hearing impairment that is so severe that the child is impaired in
processing linguistic information, with or without amplification;

DEAF-BLINDNESS: simultaneous hearing and visual impairments;

HEARING IMPAIRMENT: an impairment in hearing, whether permanent or fluctuating;

MULTIPLE
DISABILITIES: the manifestation of two or more disabilities (such as
mental retardation-blindness), the combination of which requires special
accommodation for maximal learning;

ORTHOPEDIC IMPAIRMENT:
physical disabilities, including congenital impairments, impairments
caused by disease, and impairments from other causes;

OTHER HEALTH IMPAIRMENT: having limited strength, vitality, or alertness due to chronic or acute health problems;

SERIOUS
EMOTIONAL DISTURBANCE: a disability where a child of typical
intelligence has difficulty, over time and to a marked degree, building
satisfactory interpersonal relationships; responds inappropriately
behaviorally or emotionally under normal circumstances; demonstrates a
pervasive mood of unhappiness; or has a tendency to develop physical
symptoms or fears;

SPECIFIC LEARNING DISABILITY: a disorder in
one or more of the basic psychological processes involved in
understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which may
manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read,
write, spell, or do mathematical calculations;

SPEECH OR
LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT: a communication disorder such as stuttering,
impaired articulation, a language impairment, or a voice impairment;

TRAUMATIC
BRAIN INJURY: an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external
physical force, resulting in total or partial functional disability or
psychosocial impairment, or both;

To determine if a child
is eligible for classification under one of these areas of
exceptionality, an individualized evaluation, or assessment, of the
child must be conducted.

The IDEA specifies a number of requirements regarding evaluations of children suspected of having a disability.

These requirements are briefly summarized as follows:

Before
a child is evaluated for the first time, the school district must
notify parents in writing. Parents must give written permission for the
school system to conduct this first evaluation (known as a preplacement
evaluation).

Evaluations must be conducted by a multidisciplinary
team (e.g., speech and language pathologist, occupational or physical
therapist, medical specialists, school psychologist) and must include at
least one teacher or specialist who is knowledgeable about the area of
the child's suspected disability.

The assessment must thoroughly investigate all areas related to the child's suspected disability.

No
single procedure may be used as the sole criterion for determining a
child's eligibility for special services or for determining his or her
appropriate educational placement. Rather, the evaluation process must
utilize a variety of valid assessment instruments and observational
data.

All testing must be done individually.

Tests and
other evaluation materials must be provided in the child's primary
language or mode of communication, unless it is clearly not feasible to
do so.

All tests and other evaluation materials must be validated
for the specific purpose for which they are used. This means that a
test may not be used to assess a student in a particular area (e.g.,
intelligence) unless the test has been designed and validated through
research as measuring that specific area.

Assessments must be
conducted in a nondiscriminatory way. This means that the tests and
evaluation materials and procedures that are used may not be racially or
culturally discriminatory (biased) against the child.

The
evaluation team must ensure that any test used is administered
appropriately by a person trained to do so, that the test is being used
for the purposes for which it was designed, and that the child's
disability does not interfere with the child's ability to take any test
measuring specific abilities (e.g., the child's visual impairment
affects his or her ability to read and correctly answer the questions on
an achievement test). [34 CFR Sections 300.530-300.532]

Other Assessment Questions

During the assessment process, we often ask questions such as:

How can we help the child to do his or her work?

How can we manage the child's behavior, or teach the child to manage his or her own behavior?

How can we help the child to be neater, faster, quieter, more motivated?

In what physical environment does the child learn best?

What is useful, debilitating, or neutral about the way the child approaches the task?

Can the student hold multiple pieces of information in memory and then act upon them?

How does increasing or slowing the speed of instruction impact upon the child's accuracy?

What processing mechanisms are being taxed in any given task?

How does this student interact with a certain teacher style?

With whom has the child been successful? What about the person seems to have contributed to the child's success?

What is encouraging to the child? What is discouraging?

How does manipulating the mode of teaching (e.g., visual or auditory presentation) affect the child's performance?Learning Styles

Learning
styles theory suggests that students may learn and problem solve in
different ways and that some ways are more natural for them than others.
When they are taught or asked to perform in ways that deviate from
their natural style, they are thought to learn or perform less well.

When the disability is related to a
medically related condition (e.g., sensory deficit, orthopedic
impairment, arthritis), assessment information from physicians or other
medical practitioners needs to be included as well.

More than
one assessment technique should be used in any given area, and the
assessment team should clearly understand that each area encompasses
more than one ability.

Other aspects of behavior may be important
to assess as well. Adaptive behavior is a frequent focus of assessment,
and is a required area of assessment when a classification of mental
retardation is being considered for a student.

The IDEA
specifies "deficits in adaptive behavior" as one of the two
characteristics necessary for a student to be classified as having
mental retardation (the other characteristic being "significantly
subaverage general intellectual functioning" [34 CFR Section
300.7(b)(5)].

We feature assessment using the Wechsler Scales (WAIS-III, WISC-IV) and
Woodcock-Johnson Battery (WJ-III), with additional neuropsychological
tests of functioning for assessment of language, perceptual-motor
skills, coordination, attention and memory.

This site is intended for educational purposes only. Consult with a
licensed professional before making any diagnostic or treatment
descisions about yourself or your child.